Social Security Struggling Under Biden Administration

Adam Schultz, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

(FixThisNation.com) – Under the Biden administration, the benefits from Social Security have widely decreased, with many advocates pushing for a higher annual cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA in order to cover the higher prices.

The current data shows that the rate of inflation is currently decreasing and the Social Security Administration’s COLA for 2024 would possibly be around 3.1 percent. The COLA is calculated on a yearly basis by considering the average inflation in the third quarter of each year based on the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers. This adjustment helps protect those who rely on Social Security benefits for purchasing things.

A 3.1 percent increase, however, would be lower than the 8.7 increase that occurred in 2023. The 2023 increase had been the biggest one since 1981 and was in part caused by the skyrocketing inflation rates which had reached a 40-year high.

Mary Johnson, a Social Security and Medicare policy analyst at The Senior Citizen League stated that it is normal that when inflation decreases so does COLA. This is exactly what they are seeing right now. She added that their 3.1 percent estimate is higher than the 2021 1.3 percent COLA people got. She added that it was also possible that their estimate would change depending on the data that came down.

However, despite the fact that inflation is slowing down, that does not equal a decrease in prices. Biden has pledged that he would protect Social Security despite some in the Republican party wanting to make cuts to the program.

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